As British Columbia hemorr­hages jobs — another 7,000 in February, 3,600 in construction alone — BC Ferries is considering exporting a thousand shipbuilding jobs that would inject $378 million into the provincial economy and reduce federal and provincial debt by more than $100 million, says a new economic study.

Replacement or extensive refits of aging vessels in the ferry fleet could involve more than 25 ships between now and 2030 at a cost of $2.5 billion. However, as the ferry corporation considers bids to build three new intermediate-size ships, only one of five companies that made the shortlist for design and construction was Canadian.

“The economics are clear — building B.C.’s ferries in the province would create local jobs, bring in increased tax revenue, strengthen the Canadian ship building industry, and leverage investments already made by the federal and provincial government,” says a new cost-benefit study released Monday by the Vancouver-based Columbia Institute. Economic modelling for the study was developed by Stokes Economic Consulting.

Every 100 jobs created in a Vancouver-area shipyard or repair facility would generate a spinoff of 135 additional jobs, the study says. Every $10 million spent on construction would inject an additional $5 million into the economy. And building new ferries in B.C. would increase federal tax revenues by $66 million and provincial tax revenues by $36 million.

In Washington, which operates a similar ferry system, state legislation requires that all new ferries be built in Washington shipyards in order to make sure that tax expenditure on capital projects for public infrastructure “employ people, help develop a capable workforce, and create a positive economic benefit.”

Washington State Ferries has built eight new vessels domestically since 1997.

This was also the pattern for B.C. with ferries for the provincial fleet fabricated, modified and refitted in local shipyards until the current Liberal government came to power in 2001. In 2004, the ferry corporation was restructured as a quasi-autonomous non-government organization. It contracted a German shipyard to build three new super ferries, rejecting pleas from the mayors of North Vancouver, West Vancouver and the District of North Vancouver that the project go to local shipyards, which were powerful economic generators.

One estimate at the time calculated that for every dollar in capital investment in the Vancouver region there would be a $3 spinoff in the greater B.C. economy, the study says.

The study says legislation in Washington state stipulates that 15 per cent of public works projects worth more than $1 million — including ferry construction — must be performed by workers enrolled in state-approved apprenticeship programs.

It estimates that similar legislation in B.C., where the importing of foreign temporary workers has been increasing rapidly since 2012, would see 68 of the 453 jobs required each year to build three new intermediate-size ferries used to train new apprentices.

Meanwhile, business leaders in the western Chilcotin also issued a report Monday warning that the provincial government is jeopardizing tourism provincewide by downgrading service on the so-called Discovery Coast route.

The group, which includes representative from the West Chilcotin Tourism Association, Bella Coola Valley Tourism, the Williams Lake and District Chamber of Commerce, the Port Hardy and District Chamber of Commerce, the Central Coast Regional District and the Heiltsuk Tribal Council, says European tour operators are already warning that the level of service to which transportation minister Todd Stone says the province is committed is “unworkable.”

It says one international tour wholesaler who sends close to 100,000 tourists a year to B.C. has warned the proposed changes aren’t “sufficient to satisfy even a minimum standard of service, convenience and quality. … We will not even contemplate subjecting our international visitors to the proposed new schedule.”

An earlier study by the city of Prince Rupert found that such tourists travel in B.C. for an average of 16 days and spend an average of $296 a day. If the loss in international tourist visits were 100,000 bookings, this would mean that to while BC Ferries saved $725,000 in operating costs on the route, the province would lose more than $30 million in tourist spending.

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